Results tagged ‘ Andrew McCutchen ’

The “Mc” Effect, McLouth vs. McCutchen

On June 3rd the Pirates made a trade with the Atlanta Braves that sent away All-Star and Gold Glover Nate McLouth. This trade cleared the way for Andrew McCutchen. Since the trade, there have been around 40 games for each player (42 for Cutch, 38 for Clouth). So let’s go back and review the time since June 3rd and see how this has been working out for both teams. 

Andrew McCutchen, The Pirate: 

Cutch has burst onto the major league scene, attracting nation wide attention. He’s a 5-tool player and quickly turning into one of the league’s most dynamic center fielders. His defense is fantastic and he has shown great signs at the plate. The best part of his game is his speed, he might be the fastest guy in baseball (alright, that’s probably a stretch with guys like Carl Crawford, Michael Bourn, and Willie Taveras in the league, but I can dream).

Nate McLouth, The Brave:

McLouth was the Braves plan to make a run for the playoffs. They felt they needed a player like him on their roster to really put them over the top and compete with the Mets and Phillies. He’s played 38 games with the Braves, and is having a similar season with them as he did with us, hitting for low average with decent power numbers and solid defense. Nate certainly isn’t as great as he was last year at this time, but he is definitely helping the Braves out.

Here are the numbers for each player SINCE June 3rd (courtesy of baseball-reference.com):
McLouthstats.png
McCutch stats.png
Looking at the numbers, McCutchen has been a much better player than McLouth. He is hitting 38 points higher in average, with 8 more RBI. Granted he has 20 more at bats. Surprisingly, McCutchen only has 2 fewer homers since McLouth in that time, and he has a higher slugging percentage and OPS. Cutch has stolen 4 more bases than McLouth, which certainly isn’t a surprise. McLouth even got thrown out trying to steal, which rarely happens with him. Cutch is still a perfect 9/9 in steal attempts.

Now let’s take a look at the “clutch” stats, which measures how well the players perform in crucial situations. 

McCutchen: with RISP – .387


McLouth (on season, not since trade): with RISP – .317 

Pay no attention to the highlighting there, it doesn’t mean anything significant. There isn’t too much interesting data here, but you can see Cutch has batted 35 points higher in “late and close” games. McCutchen has been getting hits in big situations. Nate McLouth has been okay in clutch situations, but he fails to compare to McCutchen. 
As far as fielding goes, it’s probably too small of a sample size to tell anything. McCutchen has a fielding percentage of .981 with 2 errors and 3 assists. If you are a Pirate fan and watch the games, you know that there have been times that McCutchen looked kind of shy out there. It’s rare for a rookie to have a lot of confidence out there in center and go out and try to make great catches, and McCutchen definitely held back a couple times this year. You can tell his confidence is growing out there and we are going to start seeing him making some great plays in the gaps. He has already made numerous catches on balls over his head. The guy’s speed in centerfield is second to none, he can get to balls that only a handful of guys in the league can get to. As for McLouth, he’s made 1 errors with the Braves and has a fieldingi percentage of .989 with 1 assist. Again, it’s too small of a sample size to really determine the sabermetrics and all that jazz, but there is no doubt that McCutchen is the better centerfielder. 
A couple more interesting things show up when you check out the ratio batting stats:

The top is McCutchen, bottom McLouth:


Didn’t line up for well, but still works. You’ll see that McLouth’s power bat has been slightly better, with over 1% different in the ratio. However, McLouth has been striking out more than McCutchen, although it’s pretty close. McLouth has been more patient at the plate, drawing more walks. Neither of their extra base hit percentages are very impressive, McLouth is a small .8% higher than McCutchen. Even though McCutchen has more RBI’s then McLouth, Nate’s AB/RBI ratio is 2.4 points better. They both hit more fly balls than groundballs, which probably isn’t a good thing for a player like McCutchen who relies on speed.

As for their teams, the Braves have gone 19-19 in games McLouth has played for them. The Pirates are 18-24 with McCutchen in the lineup.

But that’s all I got for now. All-in-all, I’d say it’s obvious that the Pirates have not been missing Nate McLouth at all. Andrew McCutchen has been a better all-around player and is only going to get better, MUCH better.

…and the Decline Begins

Well the Pirates 10-game homestand was supposed to be a time where they could make up ground on the rest of the NL Central. It started out great, after losing their first game they won the next three and were sitting at 4-1. Then they ran into Zack Greinke and Rich Harden and were back at 4-3. They played a great game with the help of Ross Ohlendorf and put themselves back in good shape with a record of 5-3. However, another lack-luster offensive game last night puts back at 5-4 heading into their last game. Virgil Vasquez pitched pretty well giving up 3 runs in 6 innings and giving the Pirates a chance to win. However it was not enough.  Today the Pirates take on the Mets, in a make up game that was supposed to go down on June 3rd, the day of the Nate McLouth trade. I will be heading down to the game, which means I will have attended all 3 games of this Mets series at PNC. In the other two games of this series, the Pirates defeated Johan Santana on a Tuesday night, and defeated Mike Pelfrey on Andrew McCutchen’s major league debut. I don’t see why the Pirates can’t win again today, with Paul Maholm taking on Tim Redding. The pitching matchup definitely favors us, and a win would make it a 6-4 homestand, which I’d be happy with. 

In other news, Sean Burnett and Joel Hanrahan made their debuts with their new teams last night. Burnett pitched 1.1 innings and gave up a game-tying homerun to Cody Ross, the first batter he faced as a National. He went on to retire his next 4 batters, but somehow got credited with a blown save. I don’t exactly know how that works, considering he gave up the run in the 7th inning and it wasn’t a save situation, but that’s what Yahoo is telling me. Nyjer Morgan didn’t play in the game, but I’d expect to see him in center field in the Nationals next game. As for Joel Hanrahan, he pitched a scoreless inning in the Pirates loss last night. He came in in the 7th inning and gave up a base hit to the first batter he faced. He then got a groundball double play and finished the inning off with the strikeout of Derrek Lee. He looked pretty good, although his fastball didn’t top 94 (as far as I saw), I’m sure it was just an off day or he was trying to be conservative in his first appearance as a Pirate. We will see that velocity above 94, I promise you. I’ve seen the guy throw 97. The other newest Pirate, Garrett Jones, sure didn’t do much. He went 0-4 while hitting in the 3 spot. I kind of question Russell’s decision to put him in that 3 hole immediately. Although if he would’ve had a couple of hits I’d be praising it. He is definitely capable of hitting some home runs, but I wouldn’t bump him up to a power spot right away. If it weren’t me, this is what my lineup would look like : 
1. Andrew McCutchen
2. Andy LaRoche
3. Freddy Sanchez
4. Adam LaRoche
5. Brandon Moss
6. Garrett Jones / Jeff Salazar
7. Jason Jamarillo / Robinson Diaz
8. Jack Wilson
9. Pitcher
When Delwyn Young is in the lineup (which should be more often then Jones and Salazar are), I’d put him in the 2 or 3 hole and move Andy back to 5, then slide everyone back from there. That’s just me though, let me know what you think. I’m heading to the game now, so let’s go bucs!

Trip, Trip, Triple

Well I haven’t posted in a couple days because my internet has been down. The Comcast guy came yesterday to “fix” it, but he failed to do so. I have it working right now however, who knows that’ll last, so I’d better do this quick. 

The Pirates lost a heartbreaking 15 inning game last night. I left for a softball game at 9:00 thinking I had no chance of seeing the end of the game, but I arrived home at 11:30 to watch the last full inning. I was excited to be able to watch some of it, but I was very disappointed when all I got to see was a loss. The Braves played an ugly game, the Pirates played a beautiful one, but in the end the Braves came out on top. That’s just how baseball works sometimes, one team can make all the mistakes in the world and still beat a team that was flawless. It just came down to the Pirates leaving more men on base. They left 10 on in the extra innings and went the last 7 innings without scoring a run. The bullpen did an amazing job, it was a shame that we couldn’t get them a win. You could say all the same about the Braves though, their bullpen combined for those 7 shutout innings and did enough to give their team the victory. It ended on a bases loaded 1 out groundball to Jack Wilson, who made a fantastic play to backhand it and throw it towards the plate, but the throw was just offline and forced Jason Jamarillo’s foot off the plate on the stretch.

Jeff Francoeur really wanted to get thrown out too, because he succeeded to run about 75% down the line, looking back at the ball the whole time. What an idiot play, it ticks me off that the final run was scored on stupid baserunning by a player who should know better. 
I’m sick of seeing big leaguers look at the ball when they run. What do they teach you in little league? When the ball is hit and you have to get to a base, put your head down and run as hard as you can. You looking at the ball isn’t going to affect the outcome, getting to the base quicker is. 
Anyways, there are a couple of positives that came out of last night. The bullpen had their best outing of the year, nearly picking up Zach Duke after he allowed 5 runs in 5 innings pitched. The bullpen combined for 9 shutout innings before Jeff Karstens, our fifth starter, gave up the one run in the 15th. I don’t think this will change Karstens scheduled Wednesday start, but it would be exciting to see a spot start from Charlie Morton, or even a Paul Maholm start a day early. My goal for this roadtrip was to win 3 or 4 games. So far we’re 1-3 with 3 more games to play. It would be fantastic to see the bucs take these next 3 games from the Braves, but the Pirates really don’t play well on the road, so I’ll be happy with 2 wins. 
A little bit of irony hit the Pirates as well last night as Nate McLouth had 3 hits, including a towering 5th inning blast to dead center field which gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. That lead would then grow to 5-1 after Brian McCann hit one of the longest home runs we’ve seen this season off of a meatball served up by Zach Duke. McLouth had a great game and I’m sure he enjoyed helping beat the bucs. I’m sure we’re still his 2nd favorite team though. 
The real story yesterday came off the bat of Andrew McCutchen, who is playing better than anyone expected. He had 4 hits, 2 triples, and was a home run shy of the cycle. He has now raised his batting average to .400, with 5 runs and 5 RBI in 5 games. He’s been doing everything for the Pirates. Andrew has stepped right into his role as a spark for the offense causing some excitement at the plate, on the bases, and in centerfield. We haven’t seen any dazzling plays out in centerfield yet, but we soon will. Andrew has to be full of confidence after his hot start, and to say I’m excited to watch him the rest of this season would be an understatement. You can read more about Andrew’s great start over at The Pittsburgh Peas blog. 
Anyways, it’s a new story tonight, and the Pirates look to give their bullpen a well deserved rest as they send bulldog Ross Ohlendorf to the mound to face Braves’ ace Derek Lowe. 

McCutchen, Pirates Get Hampt-on’d… Again

Well I just made a post last weekend about the Pirates getting beaten by Mike Hampton; I wasn’t expecting to have to make the same post a week later. Mike Hampton pitched another gem against the buccos tonight, going 7 innings surrendering only 1 earned run on 5 hits. Fantastic work from Hampton. This is just one of those things in baseball that you can’t explain, Hampton hasn’t pitched well against anybody but the Pirates this year, which makes no sense at all. Today, my favorite player Andrew McCutchen went 0-4. In his first at bat, he smoked a ball to third base but was robbed by a diving Geoff Blum. He was also robbed of a hit by the speedy Michael Bourn in the 6th innings. It was a softly hit liner into centerfield that would’ve dropped if Bourn didn’t get such a good jump on the ball. Any other centerfielder probably doesn’t reach that ball either way, but Bourn is just that quick. McCutchen very easily could’ve been 2-4 again today, but it just didn’t go his way. It really didn’t matter in the end, because no one on the team hit today and the pitching got roughed up for 9 runs. 4 of those came on a Carlos Lee grand slam that capped off a 7 run 6th inning for the Astros.

It was just another lackluster road performance for the Pirates. These guys look like a completely different team on the road than they do at home. Oh well, all the experts say to be a good team you have to play .500 ball on the road and then be well above that at home. The Pirates have played great at home this year, with a record of 15-11. Jeff Karstens had a nice start to the game, pitching pretty well in the first 5 innings, but then got into some trouble in the 6th and just couldn’t get the outs he needed. All-in-all, Karstens has been a pretty decent pitcher in that 5 spot.

Now, for our daily look in at the newest Atlanta Brave, Nate McLouth. Nate made his debut for the Braves tonight and really didn’t do anything to impress, granted it was against Yovani Gallardo.



How weird does that look? Nate went 0-4 today, but put the ball in play all 4 times. I’m really pulling for Nate to do well in Atlanta, I’d love to see him happy there, but at the same time you almost don’t want him to do well just to make people more happy with the trade. I don’t know, whatever happens happens and I guess it’s a win-win situation. I’m fine with anything happening as long as McCutchen produces up here in the majors. As long as the guy can get on base he’s going to be an impact player.

So there you have it, let’s hope for better luck tomorrow as the Pirates send ace Paul Maholm to the bump to face fellow ace Roy Oswalt. That should be a great game, and I’d expect the Pirates to hit the ball well, as they have been doing against the better pitchers in the league this year. LET’S GO BUCS!

The Andrew McCutchen Era, Game 1

It couldn’t have been a much better day at the ballpark for me today. I got up excited for the game. I then took a shower and went to my closet to grab my Nate McLouth shirt. I went downstairs, grabbed some tape and a sharpie, and made this : 

Of course, everyone there loved it. I got countless laughs and compliments on it. Anyways, I went down near the bullpen with it and tried to get Andrew to sign it. He was standing outside the dugout talking to his family so I ran over there to try and get him, but by the time I got over there he had returned back to the dugout. I ran over near the dugout and held it up, Nyjer Morgan saw it and laughed. Then McCutchen looked near me, but then looked away. I’m not sure if he saw it or not. I am pretty sure he caught a glimpse of it when running out of the dugout to stretch out and I think he was going to come back and sign it, but then the security guard kicked us out, which frustrated me. Anyways, I returned to my seat (in right center field) to watch the game. We went nuts when McCutchen ran out, everyone in our section was loving him. He didn’t get much action defensively today, only recording one put out, but he looked dang good out there. Anyways, Ross got out of the inning with a 0 on the scoreboard and the Pirates went in to hit. Andrew was penciled into the leadoff spot today.

First At Bat: McCutchen fell quickly to 0-2 against Mike Pelfrey. He then took a couple of balls and lined a low fastball up the middle for his first big league hit in his first big league at bat. A loud roar from the crowd ensued. Here are some images of his first at bat (from MLB.TV, I left my camera at home on accident).





The Pirates would bat around and score 4 runs in the first inning. However, Ross struggled and gave up 3 runs the next half inning, making it a time game.

Second At Bat: McCutchen then stepped in to lead off the top of the 2nd. He worked the count to 2-2 and then got a fastball belt high on the inner half of the plate that he drove to right center field. The ball was given a long ride, but fell into the glove of Carlos Beltran just short of the warning track. It was nothing but a routine fly ball in the end, but it really had everyone in the stadium holding their breath. The next inning was quiet, and McCutchen’s third at bat would lead off the 4th inning.

Third At Bat: Andrew led off the inning the way you love to see any lead off hitter start it off, with a walk. The walk was on 4 pitches. Andrew would come around to score and the Pirates put 4 more on the board in the inning, and Andrew would lead off the 5th inning as well.

Fourth At Bat: This at bat really made me happy. It turned out to be a groundout to shorstop, but Andrew’s hustle put a smile on my face. As soon as the ball came off his bat, Andrew buried his head and ran as hard as he could to first. He was out by a half step, and really took Alex Cora by surprise.

You just don’t see major leaguers hustle like that anymore, and I hope that’s something we get used to seeing from McCutchen. That alone will make him a fan favorite.

Fifth At Bat: Andrew’s fifth at bat of the day was his first one with runners on base. Jason Jamarillo started the inning by grounding out, and then Ramon Vasquez singled and stole second. Hinske then popped out, and Andrew came to the plate with a runner on second and 2 out. Andrew fell behind 0-2 in the count quickly but took an 0-2 splitter left up in the zone and drove it into right field for his first big league RBI.



It was a beautiful piece of hitting and good enough to earn him a 1.000 RISP for his career so far. I think I was cheering louder than anyone else in the park after that hit, I was expecting a much louder ovation but it just didn’t happen, so I might’ve made a fool out of myself. Right after he got the hit, he went ahead and stole second without a throw. He got a great jump and really showed off his speed, the catcher never had a chance. We’ll bee seeing a whole lot of that in his career, this guy is going to be a phenomenal base stealer.

McCutchen finished his day up with his sole put-out in the 8th inning on a fly ball hit by Omir Santos

The Pirates won the game 11-6, Steven Jackson got his first career win as Ross Ohlendorf didn’t pitch the required 5 innings to earn the victory. Despite all the hupla about Andrew McCutchen, today’s best players were Jason Jamarillo and Ramon Vasquez, who combined to go 6/8 with a run and 5 RBI. The Pirates did a great job today to ease the tension left after the McLouth trade. McLouth will be in the starting lineup for the Braves tonight and I will definitely be watching his performance tonight. We’re all cheering for you Nate!

The Pirates improved to 25-28 and are playing great baseball right now, they’ve won 3 in a row and just swept the New York Mets. It’s safe to say I’m really excited for our series with Houston this weekend. Tomorrow we face our killer, Mike Hampton, but something tells me this time is going to be different. Let’s Go Bucs!!

McLouth Traded, McCutchen Called Up

First, I’d just like to say – My blog name is SCREWED. 

It was shocking news. I’m just sitting there watching some kids play Wii at my glorious job at the YMCA, when my phone starts to vibrate. I reach into my pocket to see my good friend Sam calling me. Sam is a big time bucco fan, but nothing involving the Pirates immediately flashed into my mind. I answer the phone with a simple “hello?” and I hear the words… “Nate McLouth just got traded.” At first, of course, I didn’t believe it. Sam isn’t one to joke about that stuff, but I still found it hard to believe. I then grabbed my iPod touch and typed went to mlbtraderumors.com to find it true. My world went into shock. Alright, not my WORLD, but my baseball fanhood went into shock. I continued to read the names of the prospects we acquired and didn’t see Tommy Hanson’s name, so I was immediately disappointed. However, my disappointment was quickly turned around when I saw the two words – Andrew. McCutchen. 
That’s right, Andrew McCutchen is starting tomorrow. I am pumped. I will be at the game. I gotta run now though, I’ll have more on my feelings about this trade later. Let’s Go Bucs! 
Alright well here’s more. 
After talking to some fellow experts (hehe) and researching this myself, I really like this trade. First, let’s go through the players we got. 
  1. Gorkys Hernandez – 6’0”, 21 years old, outfielder. 
      • Hernandez has blazing speed. He has 124 career stolen bases in the minors in just 326 games played there. He also has a .293 average and can hit the long ball every once in awhile, compiling 14 homers in his career. He was the Braves #4 ranked prospect this year, and ranks highly in many experts top 100 prospect lists in the majors. Hernandez is a great tool to have, although the Pirates are deep in the outfield, it never hurts to have some great speed on your roster. 
  2. Charlie Morton – 6’4”, 25 years old, right handed pitcher
      • Morton is a guy with outstanding stuff who hasn’t put it all together to accumulate great numbers yet, probably due to mental issues . He has been putting it together as of late though and it starting to look like a guy who could be a quality MLB starting pitcher. This year in AAA for the Braves he was 7-2 with a 2.51 ERA, which is ace-like. Morton has seen time with the Atlanta Braves, but wasn’t very successful in that time (in the bullpen). I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morton in the majors later in the season if he keeps up those numbers for the Indianapolis Indians this summer. 
  3. Jeffrey Locke – 6’2”, 21 years old, left handed pitcher
      • Locke is a young gun with great stuff. He is ranked #7 in the Braves’ prospect rankings. He is a strikeout pitcher, averaging 8.7 K’s per 9. Again, he hasn’t been able to put up the great wins or ERA numbers yet, but he’s still young. He has a 4.01 ERA in his minor league career, which is just fine for a starter, but I expect that to go down. He has great stuff and I can definitely see him being a dominant lefty in the future. 
Alright, so there’s what we got in return. I really don’t expect to see much (if any) of those guys this year, but I definitely think Morton could be in the rotation next year and Hernandez could be in the bigs next year as well if something happens to a corner outfielder. But now, let’s get down to business. Tomorrow is a big day for me and Pirates fans everywhere. It’s the debut of Andrew McCutchen. Although the mood will be solemn with the loss of Nate McLouth, a huge fan favorite, the real fans will be excited to see this guy play. He has been labeled the saviour of the franchise, but has lost some sexiness since he’s been in the minors so long. He’s a 5-tool player with outstanding speed and has shown signs of power. He’s comparable to B.J. Upton. He’s going to be great playing centerfield, there’s no question about that. It’ll just be interesting to see if he can come up and hit major league pitching right away. This is somewhat unlikely, no one will be surprised to see him struggle at the plate at the beginning, but he’s a very exciting player that will do nothing but help this team. I’m not going to say he’s going to fill the void of McLouth this year, but let’s just say I won’t be shocked if he does. 

As for tomorrow, I have no idea where the Pirates are going to put him in the lineup. We lost our #3 hitter and there’s absolutely no way that Russell puts him there. The fact is that he’s a lead off hitter, but we already have one of those. I don’t see them moving Nyjer to the bottom of the order, at least not yet. I’d expect to see McCutchen hit 8th tomorrow. He’s a right handed bat. His first at bat will come against right hander Mike Pelfrey. I’m so excited I don’t even know what else to say. 

Looks like I’m looking for another blog name though… 

Let’s Go Bucs.

Up and Down

Victory! The Pirates looked great tonight, after Ian Snell was done anyway. Snell got roughed up, despite pitching decently well in my opinion, and gave up 3 runs in 2 innings. The Pirates put up 4 in the second to take the lead, and then the rains came. The game was delayed for nearly an hour and a half, and the Pirates came back and played great ball. Sean Burnett pitched 3 innings surrendering one run but pitching well. Evan Meek, Jesse Chavez, John Grabow, and Matt Capps teamed up to finish the game and pitch 4 scoreless innings. The big story of these guys was Matt Capps. As many of you know, Capps blew the game for us last night. The Pirates had a 1-0 lead (should have been a 3 or 4 to nothing lead) in the ninth, and Matt Capps gave up 3 and took the loss. He was anxious to get back out there and get those thoughts out of his head. He did a lot of work earlier today with pitching coach Joe Kerrigan to fix some of his mechanical issues, and it paid off. He came on in the 9th with a 3 run lead and put instant butterflies in my stomach with a 5 pitch walk of the first batter he fixed. However he quickly righted the ship by getting two ground balls to Jack Wilson, the first a double play ball and the second to end the game. The Pirates took the game 7-4 and improved their record to 15-21. More importantly they earn a chance to win the series tomorrow as they send Zach Duke to the hill. Duke has been our most reliable pitcher this year and always pitches great in PNC Park. I’m definitely feeling a win of this series as we head to Washington for a 4 game set with the Nationals. 


Other notable performances tonight were from Delwyn Young and Brandon Moss. They both had 2 hits tonight. Young had the defining hit tonight, as his 2 run single in the 2nd inning put the Pirates on top and swung the momentum in the Pirates favor right before the rain started coming down. He looked good at the plate in 4 of his 5 at bats, and even stole a bag (okay, he was easily out, but it still counts). He’s been a great addition for the Pirates and I stand behind my statement that this guy should see more playing time. I’ll touch on that more in a minute here, but first I’d like to talk about Brandon Moss’s performance. Like I said, he had 2 hits today. He is really getting the good part of the bat on the ball in this homestand. It’s funny how much confidence can do for your game. Before the St. Louis series Moss just looked awful at the plate, and I’m sure he was feeling even worse than he was looking. He has that one big game and now he’s been one of our best hitters in the 4 games following that performance. We’re finally seeing the potential that this guy has been rumored to have now. This is huge for the Pirates. 


This all brings me to one point. The Pirates have 4 guys that get playing time in right field. And I, at one point, have said that all 4 of these guys should get more playing time there. Now that doesn’t make sense, you can’t alternate 4 guys at one position. So I guess now is the time for me to pick whom I want to see in right field and whom should immediately back that person. The problem is these guys have all looked really good this year. It’s a good problem to have. 

So when I’m making this decision, I pretty much immediately rule out Monroe and Hinske. Any mature bucco fan knows to do that. They are good players and can definitely contribute to the offense, but they most likely aren’t going to be with the team next year and they are both past their primes. There is no way either of these guys makes a significant impact past 2009, and the Pirates aren’t playing for 2009 right now. We are a team of the future and everything we do should be trying to strengthen our team 2 to 3 years down the line. So this all brings me to Delwyn Young vs. Brandon Moss. Such a tough call. You all know that I am a huge fan of Andrew McCutchen and would love to see him starting for the buccos today, but that’s just not going to happen. Between Moss and Young I’d probably like to see Moss get more playing time, just because of the power. Young could definitely be an above .300 hitter, but he doesn’t have much power. At most he’ll be a singles and doubles hitter who doesn’t steal many bases, which really doesn’t help us all that much. Brandon Moss might strike out more than average but atleast he has a good chance at hitting 20-30 home runs some day. This is what the Pirates need. We haven’t had a big power bat for a long time. Not saying that Moss can be a Brian Giles this year or even next year, but he definitely has a chance to be that player in the future and I think we owe him a shot. 

So final conclusion, I’d play Moss in right field primarily, and work in Delwyn Young had second once every couple weeks, then throw him into right field against lefties or just to give Moss a spell. I’d use Monroe as the primary pinch hitter against lefties and Hinske the primary against righties. It’s nice to have Hinske too because he can spell the LaRoche brothers at the infield corners. Again, this is a very good problem to have. I love the Pirates.

And I love you. Yes, you.  Have a great day. 

3 More Days

Well we are officially 3 days away from Opening Night. I can’t stand it anymore. The ridiculous preseason fantasy team debates and comparisons have been past entertaining and fully into annoying for 2 weeks now, and I am ready for the real thing to start so we can argue about real numbers instead of projections… I mean dang. The Pirates named Craig Monroe, Donnie Veal, Craig Hansen, and TJ Beam to their active roster today, all good things in my eyes. I don’t know how long Monroe will stay there though, I mean the Pirates are so loaded with outfielders in AAA and on the big league club that I don’t really see much need for him a month or two into the season. I’ll be pretty upset if the Pirates hold McCutchen in the minors past mid-June. The kid is ready and we are all ready to finally see him in Pittsburgh. 

Now for a little promotion and recommendation. I download and listen to the ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball and the ESPN Baseball Today Podcasts everyday. I definitely recommend these to any of you out there who have an iPod or just down time on the computer everyday. I download the episodes directly onto my iPod through iTunes and then listen to them in the car or while I’m just sitting around not doing much. They really suck up time and provide great insight about the game of baseball. So yeah, just a recommendation for my fellow baseball lovers. 
On another note, I took more crap for my love of baseball today. I did well to hold myself back from personally bashing the people that were giving me a hard time, because they are just bandwagon hockey fans. I stayed away from calling them that though, because of course they’d use the common bandwagon response saying “I’ve been watching hockey all my life”. Shut up, no you haven’t, you probably don’t even know what a 2-line pass is (or was, I suppose). 
I hate Pittsburgh hockey fans… none of them like baseball. Of course, not many people still like baseball in Pittsburgh these days, I guess that’s what you get after 15 years of losing… whatever it’s better this way.
Last but not least, I have a new blog name… let me know what you guys think!

Rolling Along!

The Pirates played their first Sunday game of the year yesterday, and didn’t disappoint. After a terrible start from Jimmy Barthmaier, who surrendered 3 runs on 2 hits and walked 3 in two innings of work. The rest of the pitching staff picked him up, giving up only 1 run (thank you Sean Burnett – who also got the win), striking out 3, and only giving up 3 more hits. The offense was led by Nate McLouth, who hit his first spring homerun and 3-run form to put the Pirates on top for good as part of a 5-run 5th innings. The bullpen did the rest from that point and put up all 0′s, giving the Pirates a 6-4 win and a share of first place with a 4-1 record. 

The Pirates are in action as I type here against the Reds. They’re down 1-0 now, Jonny Gomes drove in Brandon Phillips off of Daniel McCutchen. Zach Duke pitched 2 innings, giving up 2 hits, striking out one, but keeping the Reds off the board. It’s not looking good right now for the Pirates though, as they have only collected 1 hit, to Cincinnati’s 6.
Now, let’s take a look at some of spring training’s week 1 studs and duds. 
Studs :  
  • Shelby Ford :  The young Pirate second baseman has started hot this spring, hitting .444 with 3 hits, 2 runs, a home run, 3 rbi, and 2 stolen bases, all of this comes in 5 at bats.
  • Pedro Alvarez : The highly touted Pirates prospect has gone 3 for 7 (.429) with a 9th inning RBI double against the Red Sox, a .500 OBP, and only 1 strikeout.
  • Paul Maholm : Paul only pitched 2 innings this week, but they were a great 2 innings. He struck out 2 and did not give up a hit. 
Duds : 
  • Andrew McCutchen : The possible future face of the franchise has started off just awfully in 2009. He is 0/12 with 7 strikeouts. He’s been on base only twice, but he did swipeone base. 
  • Adam LaRoche : A real shocker here (not!), Adam has collected 2 hit in 9 at bats, which isn’t all THAT horrible, but he has stuck out 5 times, which you never like to see.
  • Jesse Chavez : Chavez has a dismal 13.50 ERA, pitching 2 innings, giving up 6 hits and 3 earned runs. He has struck out 5 batters however. 
While I was typing that, the Pirates added the tying run in their 6th inning, as Ryan Doumit (finally) gets a hit and drives in the hopeful catcher, Jason Jamarillo. 
On another note, I added to my MLB Player T-Shirt collection today. My Brandon Webb and Travis Hafner shirts came in the mail. This is a new collection. so I only have 5 shirts so far. They include : Brandon Webb, Travis Hafner, Adam LaRoche, B.J. Upton, and Nate McLouth
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If you have any good player t-shirts that are in good shapes that you wanna get rid of, I am willing to throw some cash at you, just leave a comment and let me know.
Donations are also accepted  :)
Signing Off, Let’s Go Bucs, Jon.

9th Inning Magic

Well the Pirates played their 2nd spring training game today against the Red Sox, and they frankly did not perform very well through the first 8 innings of the game. Ian Snell started and gave up 2 runs in the first inning (both unearned). The Pirates only collected 5 hits all game long, but they had 2 hits that really counted. The pitching staff did a great job holding the Red Sox, as they shut them out after the first inning. Ohlendorf, Barthmaier, Denny Bautista, Burnett, Yates, and Haigwood combined to pitch 8 scoreless. In the 9th inning, the Pirates scored 3 runs to win the game 3-2. Pedro Alvarez had his first hit as a Pirate that drove in a run en route to the 9th inning comeback win. I’m not exactly sure how it happened in the 9th, because all I can see is a box score and the game wasn’t on the radio, but I’m sure it was an exciting scene (as exciting as a Pirates spring training game can be). So the Pirates have knocked off the last 2 year’s world series winners in a row now, not a bad start to the 2009 campaign. The win is nice and all, and it was good to see some solid outings some of our key bullpen pitchers, but the offense really didn’t do anything until that 9th inning, which isn’t what you want to see. Nyjer Morgan was 0-3, McCutchen went 0-2 with 2 strikeouts, Hinske was 0-2, and Steve Pearce was 0-2 after having a nice game yesterday. It’s great to see Pedro Alvarez get his first hit in that fashion though.

In other news, I have the Indians game on (MLB.TV) and I see that Matt LaPorta has hit a HR, pretty good news for Cleveland there.
But I gotta get to work, happy spring-ing baseball fans
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